The MSRB announced a joint webinar with SEC staff on August 19, 2014 to educate municipal advisors on complying with MSRB and SEC registration rules. MSRB and SEC staff will examine the registration process, review SEC Forms MA and MA-I (which must be submitted to the SEC's EDGAR system by all municipal advisors pursuant to the SEC's final rule for municipal advisor registration) and discuss MSRB Rule A-12 and Form A-12. S ee: Register for the webinar here.

The UK Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") published guidance for firms using social media to promote financial services and communicate with customers. The guidance recommended posting material that: (i) is fair, clear and not misleading; (ii) is "stand-alone compliant"; (iii) offers risk warnings and other required statements; (iv) uses images for purpose of advertising; and (v) is compliant with other regulatory issues. The FCA indicated that product advertisements must be identifiable as such. The FCA reminded firms to have adequate systems in place to sign off on digital media

FERC announced the approval of a stipulation and consent agreement between the FERC Office of Enforcement and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation ("NERC") with the Imperial Irrigation District ("IID"). The agreement is the second settlement resulting from the FERC-NERC joint investigation into the 2011 power outage that left five million people in Southern California, Arizona, Baja California and Mexico without power for up to 12 hours. According to the agreement, IID violated 10 requirements of four Reliability Standards on transmission operations and planning. The consent

FINRA filed a proposed rule change with the SEC to amend FINRA Rule 9231 and Rule 9232 regarding the composition of Hearing Panels and Extended Hearing Panels. Specifically, FINRA proposed to add an additional category of persons eligible to be on a Hearing Panel to conduct disciplinary proceedings. The new category would allow the Chief Hearing Officer to select a panelist who "currently serves or previously served on a committee appointed or approved by the FINRA Board, but does not serve currently on the National Adjudicatory Council or as a Director or a Governor." Additionally, the

SIFMA submitted a letter to U.S. Ambassador Anthony L. Gardner supporting his view that a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ("TTIP") is critical for economic growth and job creation. SIFMA stated that a TTIP "offers a unique opportunity for the United States and the European Union to further promote regulatory cooperation." Lofchie Comment: The global economy would benefit from a financial regulatory system that does not impose double or inconsistent regulations on financial market participants. For several years, efforts at global cooperation, and even cooperation